Twitter’s Popularity Grows, Statistics Released

September 9, 2011

Twitter, the popular social networking site, is taking steps to increase their ad presence. This move comes as they release user statistics, which according to The UK Guardian is rare for Twitter. Twitter assures the figures include Twitter.com, Twitter´s official apps and third-party apps.

Twitter boasts 100 million active users, half of which tweet on a daily basis, according to PC Magazine. This represents an 82 percent increase since the beginning of the year. This indicates that Twitter´s user base is increasing faster in 2011 than in 2010 and is on pace to add 26 million more users in the next 4 months, which is more users than the years 2006 through 2009 combined. Twitter also says that over 55 percent of active users tweet from a smartphone or a mobile device.

Demographically the majority of Twitter users are minorities, and the gap between African-American users and white users is widening. In May 2011, PC Magazine notes, 16 percentage points separated the number of African-American and white users (25 percent African-American and 9 percent white), while in November of the previous year the gap was only 8 percent (13 percent African-American and 5 percent white).

PC Magazin also states that one in 10 African-American Internet users visit Twitter every day, double the rate of Latinos and four times the rate for whites, according to a Pew survey.

This increase in the user-ship of Twitter means greater ad revenue potential for the company. According to Reuters, Twitter began showing limited ads in 2010. Chief Executive Dick Costolo told Reuters that interaction with the ads have far exceeded their expectations.

Costolo told Reuters, “We now feel that based on the engagement rates we´re seeing…that we´re ready to expand this further.”

Twitter, who wants to boost its appeal to marketers, will now allow ads on its “promoted tweets” service. This service will allow more users to see the ads. Previously “promoted tweets” only showed up if the user chose to follow that company, but in the new advertising model users will receive promoted tweets from companies they don´t follow, Costolo told Reuters.